Omaha daily bee., 1887-05-12
and 70 AM arrearances the deyll had

flown away with the stones. 1t took the
three men in the room moment to real.
ize what had happened, and at the end
OF that moment the commssionare at
the door of the hotel saw Mr.. A. and his
friend, who occupied the room below,
walk out of the door, the second gentle
men carrying his ulster on his arm, step
INTO Il hanson and drive rapidly down
the street. just as the cab drove Off he
also noticed q tremendous shouting and
bellrlnging, and, in company with the
other employees of the house, ran up to
the corridor on the third story, where he
met the jeweler, the porter and the man
ager rushing out of Mr.. A. 5 sthng.room
as If they had seen ghost.
THE STONES RECOVERED.
Before many hours the jewelcr was
closeted with one of the confidential in
quiry agents, who were described in the
last letter as "crooks' agents." and few
days later he recovered the stones by pay
ing the broker $1,000. If he had gone to
the police instead of the broker he would
probably have never succeeded in bring
ing the artists to justice and would GER
tainly have lost the stones altogether.
The police have never heard anything
about the operation, the manager had cX-
cellent reasons for not advertising his
own blunder in having been hoodwinked,
and as the jeweler had compounded Il
felony, he certainly wanted to keep his
mouth shut.
The Americans were, it need hardly be
said, first class artists. They had perhaps
in all invested el50 in the job, although
when their trunks came to be examined
they were found to contain an amazing
number of all newspapers, which, with
all the respect in the world for the peri
Odical press, can hardly be regarded as
valuable assets. The English banknotes
locked in the safe, with the exception of
the one at the top of the roll, were like
the old Bank OF Elegance notes; they
were some of quantity of advertisement
having the general appearance of bank
notes which theatrical manager in
Liverpool was indlscreet enough TO dis
tribute through the streets of that city
not long ago, and which were seized by
the police rs soon as they were called to
their attention, but good many of
which found their way to London in the
meantime. The manager had, of course,
not scrutinized the notes, as he merely
saw MIR. A. put them into an envelope
and write his name on it.
A CURIOUS TABLE.
This is story from the outside. Now
let us look at it from the inside. A few
days before the robbery Mr.. A. g friend
had bought for him curious antique
table, which Mr.. A. intended to take to
America with them, and which, for the
time being, he had IN his sitting room,
covered with a cloth to prevent Its beng
scratched.
1t was on this table that the diamonds
had been laid, and, as a matter of fact
with them. 1t had been made, or rather
remade, from a curious piece of old fur
niture by manufacturer of stage con.
jurors appliances in Paris. 1t was
small, round-topped table, and from the
top it sloped in and then spread out
again toward the floor, something like
the trunk of tree or an hour-glass with
out its waist being -pinched in very
tightly, The top Of the table was
a number of pie-shaped pieces
and radlating from an enameled medal
ion in the middle. From the top to the
floor the table was hollow, when the flat
piece at the bottom of it was unscrewed
and a lead weight which made it as heavy
as Il solid table was removed. Through
this hollow there ran stout piece of
heavy fsh-line, fastened to the under side
of the medallion in the top of the table.
Before the jewelers. visit this medallion
had been replaced by a wooden plug, in
which was set little iron ring. On the
under side of the cloth piece of stout
dogskin was securely glued and the ring
sewn to this. When the cord was sharply
jerked the top of the table collapsed to-
ward the middle,
THE PIE SHAPED PIECES
being hinged at the outside, and ar.
ranged so that their points would drop in
when the cord pulled down the plug.
Therefore, when the cord was pulled the
cloth would be drawn down into the hol-
low part of the table wrapping in itself
whatever had been lying on it when the
cord was pulled.
oThe two crooks had quietly cut hole
the floor of Mr.. AS sitting room
and the ceiling Of the room below as soon
up by the hotel servants that morning.
In MIR. AS room the hole was of course
concealed by the table, but the room be-
low had to be kept locked and unentered
during the morning..
This the partner had easily arranged
by saying that he was writing letters and
did not wish to be interrupted. When
ever A. went into his bedroom from the
he went out of the bedroom
to the corridor and down stairs to his
partners room, His partner was in
readiness, and when he knew it was
chair under the hole and held
his overcoat ready to catch the table
cloth and the stones Mr. A. stood with the
cord IN his left hand an open knife in his
right. He jerked the cord. His part
ner's ulster received what it was waiting
for and he quickly cut the cord close up
to the cloth.
The ulster was hastily doubled over
It's contents, and with it on the partners |
arm they walked quickly down the
stairs and were IN the hanson before the |
people up stairs realized that the stones
we're gone; and even when they saw that |
len in it took them a moment to discover |
hat it was not in that room that they |
must look for the vanished diamonds. |
The two artists must have had fully five |
minutes start, and three minutes was all |
hey needed 10 be lost.
For an lrritated Throat, Cough or |
Gold, "BrO,cns Bronchial TrOches" are Of |